49ers punch ticket to New Orleans

For the second straight week, the Falcons blew a big lead. Unlike last week against the Seahawks, they were unable to come back and win.

After the 49ers took their first lead of the game with 8:23 to play, the Falcons moved the ball in position to go ahead again, fueled by a decision on replay review to uphold a catch by receiver Harry Douglas, who could have scored if he hadn’t stumbled. The ball appeared to both move and touch the ground, but it was determined to be a catch — prompting a full-body heave from coach Jim Harbaugh.

Still, the 49ers stiffened, stopping the Falcons on fourth and four with less than two minutes to play. Along the way, quarterback Matt Ryan landed hard on his left arm after throwing a pass. He was clearly bothered by an apparent injury to his shoulder/collarbone for the rest of the game.

The Falcons forced a punt, but Frank Gore gave the 49ers some breathing room and the Falcons simply didn’t have enough time to mount a scoring drive. Ryan’s injury may have prevented him cranking up a deep pass to the end zone, which could prompt some to question whether a backup quarterback should have been used for the last play.

Regardless, the 49ers are going to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1994. And Jim Harbaugh has finally finished the business that began the following year, when his Colts nearly beat the Steelers for a berth in Super Bowl XXX.

And there’s also a chance that Jim Harbaugh will be facing his big brother in the Big Easy, if the Ravens beat the Patriots.

Though we’re officially objective, the idea of two brothers squaring off in the Super Bowl is a storyline worth rooting for.

119 responses to “49ers punch ticket to New Orleans”

Wow, a 17 point lead… Atlanta Fans, I’m only going to say this once, as I feel like being a Good Samaritan today:

If you encounter a Falcon in January and he’s sitting, ask him to stand.
Place yourself slightly behind the Falcon.
Place your arms around the Falcon’s waist.
Make a fist with one hand and place your thumb toward the Falcon, just above his belly button.
Grab your fist with your other hand.
Deliver five squeeze-thrusts that RISE UP into the abdomen.
Make each squeeze-thrust strong enough to dislodge a foreign body.
If the Falcon is Matt Ryan, you may want to repeat.

There, now you know what to do if you see any Falcons choking in January. So begins your Superbowl-less offseason like the rest of us. You have two more weeks until Sean Payton comes back. Savor it.

Halfway there. As long as the Ravens can take care of business we’ll have a Super Bowl for the ages. Darn right it’s a storyline worth rooting for. If they don’t it will be two weeks of the same old ‘Tom Terrific’ ad nauseam and replays of ‘Bill Belichick: A Football Life’ until you want to tear your eyeballs out.

Neutral fan here, but I don’t wanna hear any complaining about the officiating. Falcon fans will say White got interfered but Douglas didn’t even make that catch. Either way Falcon fans don’t complain. You had a 17 pt lead and managed to choke it away again like last week. Matt Ryan simply comes up small when it comes to the postseason. Simple as that.

Congrats 49ers. It should be concerning how little we heard of Justin Smith and the Dline today though. No matter who you face next week, but especially the Pats, your D is going to really have to play better.

Why were there so many 49ers fans in the Georgia Dome? You mean to tell my you all couldn’t sell out a NFCCG… Atlanta has to be one of the worst fan bases in all of sports. Oh well see y’all next season in the Done choke artist… i mean Failcants.

As a Niners fan, let me say that Atlanta is a great team and that was a good game. Its a tough one to swallow, we felt that way last year. Great win by the Niners! As soon as you take Kaep out of the game, you have to worry about Gore and James. Its been a long time since 1994. Go Niners!

Another choke job by Atlanta. No Super Bowl for them and just fire the coach finally. He should have gone last week, but they managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat, this week another lead and another
blowup.

Niners deserved to win, on the road, the crowd, came from behind,but no call on the last play was gutless… I hate the thought of a double hardouche Super Bowl…oh we’ll could be ..turn it off at half time…

jakec4 says:
Jan 20, 2013 6:15 PM
Halfway there. As long as the Ravens can take care of business we’ll have a Super Bowl for the ages. Darn right it’s a storyline worth rooting for. If they don’t it will be two weeks of the same old ‘Tom Terrific’ ad nauseam and replays of ‘Bill Belichick: A Football Life’ until you want to tear your eyeballs out.
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So you want to hear the “all about Ray” show for the next 2 weeks?

How often will we hear the names of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar during this time? Not once.

A storyline worth rooting for? That’s what’s wrong with the NFL today and the media covering it. How ’bout having the two best teams compete for the Lombardi without all the sob stories and “storylines?” Come on, dudes! This is football!

The Falcons got jobbed. I’m not a fan of either team, but the officials sure seemed to direct that game to get a result. I could care less about fumbles or missed field goals. The reality is that the officials made some calls at a set time and place in the game. 3rd and long, incomplete pass? Flag for a phantom blow to the head call. Game on the line? 4th and short? LB draped all over a reciever like a cheap suit and no flag on the play. Oh well. If I were the Falcons, i’d be livid. It isnt bad enough the blew a 17-0 comfort lead, the officials kept them from ultimately winning the game.

ease up on MR folks … he played a heckuva game, really only made one mistake … averaged over 10 yards/attempt, and consistently made correct decisions all game. ATL lost this game on defense, not on offense.

Terrible non call—-so do you instruct your guys to mug the receiver at the end of a playoff game? Are they afraid to call it? That was obvious pass interference. Please someone convince me otherwise. A fan of neither team by the way.

Bowman sure must have felt relieved when he didn’t get called on his 4th down pass interference. Even though the Falcons may not have been able to punch it in to the end zone after the penalty, it would have been nice to have seen the officials get it right. Game changing non call.

Terrible non call—-so do you instruct your guys to mug the receiver at the end of a playoff game? Are they afraid to call it? That was obvious pass interference. Please someone convince me otherwise. A fan of neither team by the way.
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PI is called when you interfere when the ball was in the air. Bowman jammed White but it was at the 5 yard mark which is legal for contact and White didn’t break away before the ball was thrown. Bowman swiped at the ball, good non call. Game over.

I’m a Saints but I’ve got to admitt. this doesn’t feel as gone as I thought it would. So, I’m not going to pile on. I mean what’s the point. But, what I will say is Falcons this team they way it’s built now will never get to the superbowl. Saints fans will understand what I’m about to say. The falcons remind me of Jim Mora SR Saints. They would roll through the regular season but could never get it done in the playoffs. Eventually the team was broken up and Jim Mora never got them back to the playoffs again. So, I’m not trying to talk smack when I say. This was this current roster’s best chance to win the Superbowl. It’s going to go down hill real fast from here.

Officiating in the NFL is a joke and if the refs are not going to correct horrible calls with replay, do away with it. MLB is still in the 70’s by refusing to use replay, but the NFL has it and doesn’t overturn obvious poor calls. No way Harry Douglas mad that catch, no matter how much we have to watch Mike Pereira defend his buddies.

Terrible non call—-so do you instruct your guys to mug the receiver at the end of a playoff game? Are they afraid to call it? That was obvious pass interference. Please someone convince me otherwise. A fan of neither team by the way.
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So with Bowman already in place and the play within 5 yds you expect White to engage him then be fully allowed to run into him and push off for a catch? Bowman was already in place. White originally ran into him and Bowman then made a legal defensible play.. White was short of the marker anyway. Get over it crybabies. Point still wont change that Douglas never made the catch that kept that drive alive anyway so maybe we should be the ones repeatedly crying foul

Congrats to SF. NFC WEST will be represented well in the SB. Good luck, whomever you meet.
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Wow hats off to you.. and I won’t lie as irritating as some of your brethren can be I was hoping for an all NFCW championship

PI is called when you interfere when the ball was in the air. Bowman jammed White but it was at the 5 yard mark which is legal for contact and White didn’t break away before the ball was thrown. Bowman swiped at the ball, good non call. Game over.
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No, that was beyond 5 yards and it was defensive holding. Horrible non-call. And no, i’m not a Falcons fan.

Yeah baby loving it! Especially when Falcons fans were already punching their tickets to the Superbowl after the 1st qtr lmfao….. Cya Dirtyturds have fun watching the NFC CHAMPS and clearly better team play in the Big game hahaha!!!

Did the Falcons lose? I’m shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED! That’s never happened before. Unbelievable.
At least those flat faced trailer trash Falcons fans won’t be exposed to national TV. Nobody needs to see that

Matt Ryan actually played a good game with 317 pass yards. All of the receivers, especially Julio Jones and Tony Gonzalez did well.
The running was terrible though and I wonder if that’s what caused Atlanta to lose with 50 yards total rushing between Rogers and Turner.

PI is called when you interfere when the ball was in the air. Bowman jammed White but it was at the 5 yard mark which is legal for contact and White didn’t break away before the ball was thrown. Bowman swiped at the ball, good non call. Game over.
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No, that was beyond 5 yards and it was defensive holding. Horrible non-call. And no, i’m not a Falcons fan.
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Umm it was 4th and FOUR. The play was underneath the 1st down marker so please explain how it was beyond 5 yds….

Seemingly meaningless third quarter time out by Atlanta was huge at the end of the game. When will the coaches realize that a delay of game five yard penalty is so much better than wasting a time out!!!!!

Great game by ATL, but there can be only 1 winner. I wish Gonzo nothing but the best in his second career which I hope has him on TV somewhere and I look forward to his speech in 5 years as he is inducted into Canton. As a 9er fan who was in the same spot last year I wish you Falcon fans well. Rest up. Gear up and get ready. I think we’ve seen the resurgence of the NFC and if you can replace your TE then I see you in the playoffs next year. Good luck.

Obvious call was missed—just admit it already! I’m not a Falcons fan. The receiver was mugged. Are you allowed to tackle the running back on a screen pass before the ball gets there? If I’m missing a rule let me know.

I love how everyone is up in arms about the 4th down play. It was questionable at worst but I think it was fine. Falcons receivers were throwing around our smaller DB’s all game, couldnt do the same to our LB….the refs were letting them play physical all game so get over it.

On top of all that, the catch that got them there clearly hit the ground on replay so if anyone should be upset about getting hosed by refs it’s Niners.

Great comeback by the Niners. It’s clear they wanted this game more and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I feel bad for Tony Gonzalez though who has been a class act throughout his career and redefined the position.

There’s missed p.I. calls in every game. They were letting them play. Don’t forget about the botched review, where Douglas clearly didn’t come down with it. If you gotta ble it on the refs, you are clearly stretching it, I thought the game was over in the 1st, the falcons blew it, quit bitching, and blame the team, I was fully prepared to start blaming David akers.

For all the morons who keep saying that the contact was after five yards, watch the play again. It was fourth and four and the play was short of the first down. Thumbs down if the math is too difficult for you.

Seemingly meaningless third quarter time out by Atlanta was huge at the end of the game. When will the coaches realize that a delay of game five yard penalty is so much better than wasting a time out!!!!!

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I said it during a game thread that I was hosting at the time that they called it, and it indeed came to fruition in that scenario when they needed it most.

Anyone complaining about the officials needs to learn more about the rules of the NFL. Any contact to the QB’s head is a personal foul… And the “non” pass interference on the 4th and 4… A defender can make contact within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage on the receiver… Not saying both rules are good ones but for god sakes would you people learn the rules before complaining about it….

Wow. Mr. Wright really needs to get a life. So much hate for teams that flat out destroyed his squad this year. That won’t change next year, as the Giants are going to be 3rd or 4th in their division for several years.

Wow. Mr. Wright really needs to get a life. So much hate for teams that flat out destroyed his squad this year. That won’t change next year, as the Giants are going to be 3rd or 4th in their division for several years.
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Welcome to Eagles Fandom 101. Today’s lesson: gloating about regular season wins that no one but your own fanbase cares about.

Wow. Mr. Wright really needs to get a life. So much hate for teams that flat out destroyed his squad this year. That won’t change next year, as the Giants are going to be 3rd or 4th in their division for several years.
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24-2. You know, a game that actually matters beyond the scope of the Giants and Falcons’ fanbases. No one will even remember nor care about 34-0 (when the Giants were clearly not even playing football anymore that week or the following) even two years from now.